A Former Soviet Agent Becomes a Notorious Weapons Dealer
After 1991, former Soviet agent Viktor Bout set about carving a new career for himself as an arms dealer. His exploits would earn him the ni...
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20 of 495 episodesWhy the Fastest Male Grizzlies Get the Girl
Bear courtship in Yellowstone National Park happens at breakneck speed - literally. The male grizzly sets off after the female, who tries to...
Why Vervet Monkeys Love Zambezi Fig Trees
Vervet monkeys find the figs of the Zambezi fig tree to be completely irresistible. And because vervets rarely stay in one place for too lon...
This FBI Agent Sold Secrets to the KGB for Years
In 1985, an American FBI agent began to sell intelligence to the Russians, under the alias of Ramon Garcia. It would be another 16 years bef...
A Navy Warship Goes Down Weeks Before the End of WWII
In the final days of WWII, Eagle 56 was on a routine assignment in the Gulf of Maine. In an instant, the ship found itself ripped in half, w...
A Shy Orangutan Shares Her Breakfast with a Friend
A shy orangutan makes great strides by confidently securing her share of breakfast. But she’s not above sharing her bounty of turnips with a...
This Gun Was One of the Very First Machine Guns
In 1866, Hiram Maxim, an American engineer, tried out a rifle for the first time and found himself wondering how he could make it better. Th...
This Salt Lick Doubles as a Reunion Spot for Elephants
A herd of migrating elephants are acquiring necessary minerals like calcium and potassium from a burnt wood clearing. It’s also an impromptu...
Orangutan Creates an Umbrella Hat to Stay Dry
Orangutans are adept at improvising and using tools – this experienced female has learnt to make a makeshift umbrella hat – useful in a stor...
The FBI Investigates Soviet Deep-Cover Spies in America
Over the course of a decade, deep-cover Russian spies embedded in America collected intelligence and passed it onto their handlers. The FBI...
British Intelligence Uncovers a Deadly Al-Qaeda Terror Plot
In 2006, British Intelligence were convinced that two people they were surveilling were part of an active Al-Qaeda terror cell. They were ab...
Orangutans Need to Learn to Fear Snakes
In primates, recognition of snakes is instinctive, but fear of snakes is learned. Today, caretakers of the jungle school set about teaching...
The C-5 Galaxy Had a Catastrophic Design Flaw
The C-5 Galaxy is a true giant among USAF cargo planes – but its development was not without problems. Just four years after it made its deb...
How Lizards are Turning Our Knowledge of Evolution Upside Down
Lizard biologists in the Caribbean have observed a fascinating phenomenon: different lizard species across different islands appear to share...
This Fighter Plane Landing Has Never Been Attempted
The F-35B is designed to stop in midair before landing vertically on an aircraft carrier, using immense downward thrust. What’s never been a...
Not All Baboon Babies Are Treated Nicely
Baboons love babies – you can see it in the way the mothers carry their newborns around like royalty. But the cold reality is that their ran...
A Happy Event Offers Promise for the Survival of Cheetahs
From a breeding perspective, cheetahs are one of the hardest animals to work with. That’s why the birth of two litters at the Smithsonian Co...
The Different Teams Involved in Testing the F-35B Lightning
Testing the F-35B Lightning involves three different groups of people aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth: British Royal Navy aircraft hands, civ...
Aircraft Carrier Crew Face a Myriad of Risks Below Deck
Life for the crew of the HMS Queen Elizabeth is a challenging combination of cabin fever and high alertness: often confined to below deck, s...
This Rabbit Never Saw It Coming
A python’s heat sense receptors have picked up a rabbit, feeding on some cabbage. It’s the perfect sized meal for an expectant mom with a cl...